Hello, This jetty is the Terminal Island side of the Long Beach harbor. The mouth of the Los Angeles river empties in this outlet to the ocean. The Queen Mary in the background is locked into its permanent home and the area in front is normally wide open spaces. The right side of the L.A. River outlet is a good place for photos, due to nothing else around the location. The blue background always is calm, except for a rare day in the Southern Hemisphere swells that sneak inside of the openings to the far south, on the border of Seal Beach. The “South” swell travels unimpeded from below the USA or across the Pacific. The angle of the swell allows it to come inside of the southern end of the long breakwater. As it comes into the normally calm waters inside of the harbor, the swell moves Northwest. Along the way, small to medium swells break on the shores of Long Beach, again, like they used to prior to building the breakwater. Jnaki My brother and I chuckled when our dad told us of overhead waves breaking along the shoreline near the Pike. Those beaches were open to all of the traveling storms coming from all directions. It was not until the internet started popping up some historic photos of old surfers riding overhead waves near the mouth of the L.A. River that we now understood what our dad was telling us back in those teenage days. If it had continued to break like it did, there would have been no reason to travel 50-80 miles North or South to catch some waves. It was just 3 miles away at the Long Beach Harbor outlet for the L.A. River, near our old house. Note: So, to prove a point, a couple of days, we parked where the above photo was taken and watched the swells coming in from the Seal Beach city beaches several miles to the south. They were lining up nicely, but not breaking due to the depth of the harbor. But, as it came to where we were sitting, the sediments from the L. A. River made it shallow enough to create some wave breaking places in the middle of the river outlet. Real waves with nice peaks and short walls to the sides of the river rocks on both sides. So, we paddled out and caught some waves about shoulder high that gave us some quick turns and short walls for several cutbacks and turns. Those were actually fun waves in the middle of the L.A. River to the ocean area. We could almost stand up at low tide with the sediments on the bottom. It was gooey sediment, by the way… yuck. The swell from the South would hit the final wall of rocks (below and behind the race car) and bounce off back into the channel. Then the shallow bottom created a nice peak that was rideable. When we told our dad about the waves and riding them near the River mouth end and the Queen Mary. He chuckled and wanted to say “I told you so,” but he just nodded his head and had a smile on his face… Dads can be right in historic stories, but only if we experience them for ourselves. YRMV Note 2: The parking was on the Long Beach side, (Golden Ave. launch site) but those who crossed over from the Terminal Island/San Pedro side to the West, were able to see the peak and a couple of teens surfing those shoulder high peaks. They probably thought we were crazy. Yes, the water was just as polluted as it is today, but back then, we did not give it much thought. And yes, we got sick, but had no idea that it could have been exposure to the L.B. Harbor/L.A. River water meeting spot. Those waves could have been overhead if the breakwater was not built to protect the long white sandy beach along the shoreline. The southern hemisphere waves have come a long way, but had to squeeze their way inside of the breakwater wall and travel inside of the long row of rocks to get to the terminal island portion of the long beach harbor's, Queen Mary location. In 2028, the long distance swimming portion and sailing, of the Los Angeles Olympics will be held inside of the breakwater along the shoreline. Hopefully, it won't have rained for weeks prior as the flow comes out of the L.A. River into the ocean portion of the harbor. It is probably as bad as the Paris Seine River, although, the ocean does come into the harbor area to help with the flushing out of the polluted water.
The Jalopy Journal
